Stefan Schnabel – Biography

Stefan
Schnabel, Therese and Artur Schnabel’s second son, was born in Berlin on
February 2, 1912. He had a successful acting career, from radio to television,
the stage and the movies. He worked with many great actors, beginning with
Laurence Olivier on the stage, then with Orson Welles on radio, Lucille Ball on
television and Gérard Depardieu, Clint Eastwood, William Holden and Robert
Mitchum among others in the movies. He also starred for 17 years as Dr. Stephen
Jackson in daytime television’s Guiding Light.

When
the Nazis came to power in 1933, Stefan left Berlin with his family to live in
Tremezzo, Lake Como. That same year he went to London where he joined the Old
Vic Theatre and studied and worked with Sir John Gielgud, Charles Laughton and
Maurice Evans. He played Lucianus in Laurence Olivier’s first production of
Hamlet and the elderly butler in George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara,
developing a friendship with the author.

In
1938, Stefan Schnabel moved to New York City. With his background, he had no
trouble finding work in the United States and was immediately hired for radio
programs. He once estimated that he must have done 5,000 broadcasts before
entering the U.S. Army during World War II to serve with the Office of Strategic
Services.

In 1939
he married Joan Pittman. Their daughter, Susan, was born in 1940.

Before
the war he was also active on the stage and appeared in the Welles’ Mercury
Theatre productions of Julius Caesar and Shoemaker’s Holiday as
well as Eva LeGallienne’s productions of The Cherry Orchard and Now I
Lay Me Down to Sleep. His first post-war role was in Welles’ production of
Cole Porter’s musical Around the World in Eighty Days on Broadway. He met
his second wife, Marion Kohler, in the cast and they married a year later taking
up residence in Connecticut. They have two sons, Peter and David.

Stefan
Schnabel appeared in Broadway shows such as Peter Ustinov’s The Love of Four
Colonels, the musical Plain and Fancy, the plays A Very Rich Woman
and Social Security. He obtained further acclaim in the Lincoln
Center Repertory Theatre productions of In the Matter of J. Robert
Oppenheimer and Enemies. He was featured off-Broadway in Tybala
and Her Demon, Cymbeline, the American premiere of Slawomir Mrozek’s
Tango, also The Passion of Dracula and Older People for
Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival. He played in many productions
throughout the United States and Germany as well. One of the notable plays he
appeared in was Prozess Jesu by Diego Fabri in Munich and on tour in
Bavaria.

Together with his wife,
Marion Schnabel, Stefan conceived the Rainbow Theatre with a series of dramatic
readings at Norwalk Community College, Connecticut. A few years later, in 1992,
they moved to Italy, to their house in Rogaro, Lake Como. This is where Stefan
Schnabel died on March 11, 1999.